I'm getting solar panels. I'll let you know how it goes in this discussion thread.

ethicalpaul · November 4

Last week I received Permission to Operate (PTO) from my utility, PSE&G

It took them almost a month to get around to emailing me that I had PTO from the point where they actually granted it.

Then I had to contact my solar contractor after a few days of nothing happening because apparently they don't check their email when it finally does come from the utility (both organizations are very very busy right now, to be fair, as people are scrambling to get installations done before the incentives were killed by…someone.

So production has begun and all seems good. Here is this Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday (today, partial):

11/2 was clear all day I believe, it was mostly cloudy yesterday, and today has started out clear. This shape will become very typical I believe, with it getting wider during the longer days of summer and narrower during the cold dark winter.

Here's the layout view, showing morning production. Afternoon will swing over to the west side of course:

hot_rod · November 4

time to replace that steam boiler with A2WHP😲

ethicalpaul · November 4

No, steam is too fun and easy

ChrisJ · November 4

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1870844#Comment_1870844

EBEBRATT-Ed · November 4

Yup!! Paul must be goin green on us!!!!

hot_rod · November 5

I'm in a good area for solar days, so my OV now has two heat pumps and an EV charger to provide for.

Looks like you have plenty of output, what do you have for loads in the winter?

ethicalpaul · November 5

honestly I don’t know my actual winter load but the panels should be about 100% of usage

I don’t have anything too big—EV car is about it. The HPWH uses very little and no heat pump heat in the winter

hot_rod · November 5

well your getting close to the shortest day lowest sun, so soon you should know.

Did the the installer run a simulation program, those are pretty accurate, telling you what to expect throughout the year.

You can find your usage history at the providers website, probably?

pumpcontrolguy · November 6

Thanks for sharing the update, cool to see all the info. I've always wanted to do solar since back in the day but it's looking like I'll be a forever renter so I don't think I'll ever get the chance

ethicalpaul · November 6

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1870947#Comment_1870947

My winter usage load is a very consistent 21kWh per day for Dec, Jan, Feb for 2024. My sunny day production right now in early November is 28kWh and cloudier days are about 20kWh so that is looking pretty good.

The installer seems to have run analysis on my usage vs my expected production. Those came out to my production would be 102% of my usage. I had to insert myself into this process to maximize the number of panels (I asked for non-symmetrical layout to maximize the panel count for example, and made suggestions for layout changes to maximize them).

Now I'm in the interesting position of hoping for more dramatic increases in electricity rates in order to shorten my ROI and make me happier about my decision to install these (I'm already happy).

kenjohnson · November 22

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1860336#Comment_1860336

If you do get a one-time reset of your yearly net metering reset, April is the month to have it reset. Then, you get max production over the summer before your winter heating season starts (assuming that you probably have at least one mini-split for heating).

ethicalpaul · November 23

thanks. I do get a single reset but I admit I’m not sure what it means to my scenario

kenjohnson · November 23

Apologies in advance if I am solarsplaining…

Basically, if you are on yearly net-metering you accumulate excess kWh production to your account to draw down when your monthly consumption exceeds your monthly production.

April is usually the month where (at least in the Northeast) solar PV production starts to rapidly increase (less cloudy skies, more daylight) and usage starts to decrease (for most) due to warmer weather. Therefore, you want to start the yearly net-metering accumulation in April because you are almost guaranteed to generate more in that month than you use, and this will also be true for May through September. Then, October (or maybe November) are the months with less daylight, more clouds, some snow on your panels, etc. that will reduce solar PV production, and you will want to draw down your accumulation during those months.

If you pick a mid-summer month or a winter month to start the net-metering reset (and new accumulation) you will either be accumulating a lot of kWh to your account later in the period only to just forfeit them or get paid minimally for them when the (summer month) reset happens or you won't have accumulation to draw down from and will pay for kWh for the winter months (winter month reset).

ethicalpaul · November 23

OK thanks for that explanation, I think I get it.

So the "bank" resets every year and I get to pick the reset time, and I want the reset time to be a time when there is no balance, is that about it?

hot_rod · November 24

Typically the designer/installer runs a simulation for you system. Shows what you expect vs what you use.

This is for a Thermal system, Valentin has PV sim programs.

Screenshot 2025-11-24 at 12.24.32 PM.png

kenjohnson · November 25

Q: So the "bank" resets every year and I get to pick the reset time, and I want the reset time to be a time when there is no balance, is that about it?

A: Yep, that's the short answer for yearly net metering if the utility allows you to make a one-time change to the net metering month.

ethicalpaul · December 22

Today is a nice sunny day on the day after the shortest day of the year. I should have really good production as the days get longer

Here's energy, showing daily kWh (12/22 is full sun, but it's still morning):

Here's Power, showing kW over time:

In my first full month of November 2025, I had 438 kWh produced (reported from the solar provider).

In the utility bill below, though, you'll see the numbers don't match up. This is because there is a number missing I think, and that is the number of kWh of my own production that I used (and so never got sent out to the grid, nor came in from the grid). So I think that number is 438 kWh produced minus 334 kWh sent out to the grid, which equals 104 kWh.

But regardless for now I'm super happy to have output 334 kWh to the grid against 505 kWh incoming from the grid in miserable, cloudy, short-days November. It will be interesting to see which month I first break even, and then of course, the surplus starts piling up.

One more note that I see solar naysayers talk about is the charges that remain on the bill regardless of solar generation, or "Delivery Charges". I will have the $6 service charge regardless, but look at the rest of the Delivery Charges. It is billed at $0.059942 per kWh. But it's only charged against the net incoming kWh which is just 171. That amount will soon be zero and should remain zero as I expect to be at Net Zero electric usage year over year. We'll see!

hot_rod · December 22

I like the installation layout on the roof

ethicalpaul · December 22

Thanks! There are 3 on each side of the center gable as well. My wife was kind of bummed to cover up the new pretty shingles, but I have purposely asked several daytime visitors if they noticed anything about the roof and most of them don't even see the panels. People don't look up much!

If you look carefully you can see there are two additional panels on the westerly side because I was able to position those in landscape orientation. They would fit that way on the easterly side as well (which is more directionally advantageous), but I couldn't do it on that side due to fire code placement rules.

DCContrarian · December 22

@ethicalpaul : "One more note that I see solar naysayers talk about is the charges that remain on the bill regardless of solar generation, or 'Delivery Charges'."

What's clear is that net metering as currently practiced is unsustainable.

To see that, you just have to imagine what would happen if every power company customer had a zero or single-digit monthly bill. How would that pay for the maintenance of the grid?

What probably would be sustainable is some combination of minimum monthly charges for the convenience of being connected to the grid, time-of-day based electric rates, and transmission charges on both electricity bought from the grid and electricity sold to the grid.

Solar would still be a good deal, just not quite as good a deal.

mattmia2 · December 22

i mean they don't pay for maintenance of the grid now unless people start lining up with torches and pitchforks, so not sure that cost is the problem…

commercial customers use a lot of power and they are somewhat less likely to go in to the solar plant business

ethicalpaul · December 22

What's clear is that net metering as currently practiced is unsustainable.

I'm not talking about the global (or even national) mechanisms in this thread. If everyone had solar on their roof the grid would be very different. But what we have today is a small fraction of rooftop solar, with a grid that was historically built up to support one-way delivery. That's fine.

In the states with more developed rooftop solar, they no longer offer 1:1 net metering like I am now locked into for the next 15 years here in NJ. They had their time "in the sun" and now they are in a more mature market where people are now starting to implement their own storage systems to give themselves the ability to provide their own power at night and on cloudy days.

This kind of change is just what happens. The naysayers want to freeze a moment in time and say things like "the grid can't support such and such" and "what if such and such" and "such and such could never work if everyone had it". Well I prefer to work within the realms of today's possibilities, and let the future sort itself out which it always seems to.

These same kind of people said electric cars and heat pumps could never be supported by the grid as if the grid has never undergone change and was placed into service in a forever unchanging state by Edison himself.

EBEBRATT-Ed · December 22

@ethicalpaul

Don't go bad on us now and rip the Peerless out!!!!!

Just keep repeating this "steam heat is better than free heat" "steam heat is better than free heat"……….

DCContrarian · December 23

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1878635#Comment_1878635

It's not a cult, I am free to leave any time.

ethicalpaul · December 23

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1878635#Comment_1878635

No danger of that, steam heat is too much fun to give up!

mattmia2 · December 23

you need to fire your boiler with hydrogen

hot_rod · December 23

https://forum.heatinghelp.com/discussion/comment/1878598#Comment_1878598

Interesting that the went to the roof edge on the left side. I thought code required a walk path around the entire array. Maybe two sides is all that is required?

It passed inspection, so it must be code compliant, and they maximized the roof area.

ethicalpaul · December 23

yes apparently they just need one side. I wanted it on the other side (better sun there) but the installers said the fire department likes the accessible side on the driveway side which I can understand

kenjohnson · December 24

Congrats on the early results! I installed my first 5 kW array in mid-November and it was depressing to see the first two month's results in a Central NY climate - your production looks pretty good for these two months. Wait until February rolls around - you're going to love that.

Any plans to install a mini-split heat pump to soak up any expected surplus kWh you have from summer production?

ethicalpaul · December 24

I do have a 3 head mini split currently which, depending on my annual balance I may utilize more in the shoulder seasons to reduce my gas use

hot_rod · December 25

An EV or plug in hybrid is another way to use up kwh, and lessen vehicle operating cost

ethicalpaul · December 26

I used one of those to get my annual usage numbers up prior to sizing! (And still have one of course)

I'm getting solar panels. I'll let you know how it goes in this discussion thread.

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